Judy Rodman, the singer’s best friend

When you ask musicians in Nashville, “Who is the best vocal coach around?” the answer you’ll get—immediately and before any other—is “Judy Rodman.” Many people will remember Judy as the beloved, award-winning recording artist voted “Best New Female Vocalist” by the Academy of Country Music in the 1980s, who went on to write and record numerous chart-topping singles.

Today—along with continued songwriting and performing with her band Judy Rodman and 6Play—Judy specializes in teaching her trademarked vocal-training method “Power, Path and Performance”™ to singers and speakers nationally and internationally.

Underground Nashville recently caught up with Judy for this exclusive interview:

UNDERGROUND NASHVILLE: What is the #1 reason why most of your students come to you for vocal lessons?

JUDY RODMAN: I believe most people come to me because I bring decades of professional success and practical experience, not just academic theory, to my work as vocal coach, studio producer, and vocal producer. That’s why they come in the first place; the reason they return is that my training truly works for them!

UN: What are the top two or three benefits singers derive from working with you?

JR: I’d say the top three benefits of my training would be:

1. Rapid improvement of your vocal control (resulting in new levels of vocal ability in general);

3. The ability to deliver a much more impactful performance . . . one that gets an emotional response from the listener.

UN: What is the principal reason why a person who is vocally gifted in his or her twenties may see his/her voice diminish as he approaches, say, fifty? Is this inevitable?

JR: Our voices don’t have to diminish with age. I’m 61, I’ve been singing for decades, and I have more vocal ability right now than I’ve ever had.

The principal reason why a person would see vocal ability diminish would be the habitual use of bad vocal technique . . . primarily that of pushing the breath too hard through a tight throat. Otherwise, the cause would be some kind of organic disease such as cancer, spasmodic dysphonia (SD), or other conditions that diminish overall physical health and stamina.

For more information about Judy Rodman and “All Things Vocal,” please visit:

David M. (Dave) Carew is writer/editor of “Underground Nashville” and the author of the novels “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville” and “Voice from the Gutter,” both now available at XLibris.com. Dave also is a freelance book editor, publicist, seminar and workshop leader, journalist, and advertising / marketing / public relations writer.

************Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville by Dave Carew—which was praised by The Tennessean as “beautiful, haunting, powerful”—is now available in an all-new paperback edition. For more information, please visit and “like” the page on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/EverythingMeansNothingtoMe?ref=ts&fref=ts

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Editor’s Note: “Underground Nashville” covers artists, authors, musicians, poets, political figures, and other compelling people and happenings not typically covered by the mainstream Nashville media. It also presents reflections and commentary from an underground/indie perspective, offering “thoughts from the shadows of a great American city.”